Latest Drive for Android update hints at automatic photo/video back-up and Chromecast support

Google rolled out an update to the Drive Android app earlier this week, and as usual, what it touted in the change log wasn’t all that changed. Android Police has dug deeper into the APK update file and noticed some changes that hint at major new features coming to the app. First off, it appears that Google Drive will take over the task of backing up photos and videos for users, a responsibility that has been held by Google+ since its inception.

Whispers of the Google splitting the popular Photos feature from Google+ have been around for a while, and this change appears to be the first step to the separation. Although at this point, there is no evidence of features like Auto Awesome migrating from the Google+ app. Instead, it simply appears that Drive will take over the management of user photo and video.

Next, and perhaps most notably, it appears that the Google Drive on Android is gearing up to finally support Chromecast streaming. With version 2.2 of the Drive app, there’s a new convenience library called CastCompanionLibrary, which supplies most of the hard parts in adding Cast support to an app. This includes things like a full-size player screen and support for captions.

It’s unclear when Google plans to add these features to the Drive app on Android, but these under-the-hood changes provide solid enough evidence to lead many to believe that they are definitely coming.